Electromagnetic pump



Nov. 1, 1927. 1,647,147 L. H. ROLLER ELEG'TROMAGNETICA PUMP Filed May 2, 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet l m als:

INVENTOR L J''. R 0 u@ 7' ATTORNEY L. H. ROLLER r ELECTROMAGNETIC PUMP Filed may 2, 1924 5 sheets-sheet 2 L. H. ROLLER ELECTROMAGNETIG PUMP Filed May 2. 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR f LHT-Romer BY l' la ATTORNEY ing drawings, and described and Y part o Patented Nov. 1, 1927.

UNITED STATESl` LoUIs n. ROLLER, or WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK.

ELECTROMAGNETIC PUMP.

application mea may 2, 1924. serial No. 710,680.-

My invention relates broadly to pumps that operate on the principle of the solenoid.l There are obvious advantages in pumps of this class; for they comprise a plunger or moving element operating within a cylinder or casing and actuated solely by magnetic pull, thereby obviatingthe necessity for anymechanical connection penetrating 'the cylinder. doing away with stufiing boxes and permitting a closed fluid/system to be hermetically sealed. i

Solenoid pumps as heretofore constructed have not been commercially successful because they were economically inefficient. It is an object of my invention to provide ce1'- tain improvements whereby the efficiency of my lpump will approach if not equal the efficiency of a rotary electric motor. This end I attain by providing sectional field windings on the cylinder and a sectional armature on the plunger, the field being progressively energized by a series of waves of electromagnetic energy, whereby the plunger receives a progressive number of different points along its length.

-It is a further object of my invention to furnish improvements in details of construction'of the cylinder and also of the armature and the field, whereby many of the magnetic losses common to solenoid pumps, as heretofore constructed are avoided.

A lstill further object of my invention isthe provision of novel means for automatically reversing thel operation of the plunger at the end of its stroke.

These and other objects are attained by a novel construction and combination of parts, clearly illustrated in the accompanyointed out in the following specification anA claims.

Referring to the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section taken' through my pump,

Fig. 2 is a cross section taken on the line 2-2of Fig. 1, y

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary view of a portion of the plunger of the iston'head, the armature sections and y the cylinder wall and field coils;

Fig. 3? is an enlarged sectional view'of a fragment of the cylinder,

Fig. 4 is across section taken 4-4 of Fig. 3, l

are perspective views of on the `line magnetic pull at a showing details v armature segments used in building up the armature sections of the'pump plunger,

Fig. 6 is a sectionalview of a fragment of the pump plunger and ,cylinder showing a modified form of armaturelsegment,

Fig. 6a is a sectional view of a fragment of .the pump cylinder similar to Fig. 3, but showing a modified construction,

Fig. 7 is an electrical diagram of the pump showing the field connections employed with a three-phase alternating current source of power, 4

Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic view of the electrical connections employed with direct current or single-phase alternating current' and also illustrates a form of commutator through which the field coils may be successively energized,

Fig. 8a is a plane projection of the commutator shown in Fig. 8,

Fig. 9 shows diagrammatically a method of interconnecting a series of electromagnetic pumps to provide for multi-stage pumping of liquids, and

Fig. 10 is a similar view showing the arrangement of pumps and pipesconnections for furnishing a multi-stage compression of gaseous fluids.

Referring to the drawings in detail, and particularly to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, 11 represents a base on which the pump is mounted.- At each end of this base, there is va bracket 12 which forms a valve head for my pump.r Associated therewith is a valve body 13 and a flanged collar 14. The members 14 are internally threaded to receive the ends of the cylinder 16. Within this cylinder is located a plunger which is of a shorter length than the cylinder so as to provide a. suction and compression space 16.at o the cylinder. In each mem r 12, there is an annular recess 17 with which a suction or inlet'pipe 18 communicates, while centrally located with respect to the annular recess is a chamber "19 with which a discharge or outlet pipe 20 communicates.

The valve bodies 13 are provided with series of suction ports 21 communicating with the annular recesses 17 and closed by annular suction valvev plates 22 which arenormally held in closed position by springs 23'. The valve bodies are also provided with discharge ports 24, ishin communicaposite ends of tion between the interior\of the 'cylinderl l -ducting material. vided a series of flat field coils36 which are and the chambers 19 and 'these 4ports are closed by means of 'discharge valve plates 25, held normally in closed position by springs 26.

The precise details of this construction are immaterial to my invention and are given merely as an illustration of a valve mechanism which could be employed at each end of the cylinder. It will be evident that Amaterial departures from the exact construction illustrated'and described can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention.

Referring now more particularly toy the plunger, it will be seen to consist of a centra] rod 27 provided at each end with a piston head 28 which carries the usual piston rings 29 to afford a tight seal. All these parts are preferably of non-magnetic material. Intermediate these piston heads is the armature of the plunger which consists of a series of sections separated by collars 30 of non-magnetic material. Each armature section is of annular form being built up of soft iron segments 31 and 32 (see Figs. 5 and 5a). The segments are recessed at 31 and 32 respectively to receive a retaining non-magnetic ring 33. As shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the segments are clamped tightly between the retaining rings 33 and the rod 27 by means o f wedges 34. Were all the segments of the sector form shown in Fig. 5, they would-tend to separate as the wedges were tightened leaving undesirable spaces between them. To avoid this the segments Y 32 are provided whichare reversely tapered with respect to the segments 31. Segments 32 are introduced at several points inthe armature section and as the wedges 34 are tightened the segments are crowded together into a continuous compact annular mass. The entire series of built-up armature sections with the spacer collars 30, is clamped between the piston heads 28 by means of nuts 35 which enter recesses in the piston heads and are threaded upon the rod 27.

The cylinder 16 is formed of non-magnetic material and preferably of noncon- On this cylinder is promounted on thickened portions 37 of the cylinder. These thickened. portions serve to reinforce the cylinder and they vmay be either integral with the cylinder, or may consist of collars shrunk on the cylinder. It is important, however, that they be of non-magnetic material and preferably nonmetallic.

the ends of the collars 14 the cylinder wallsy are thickened as indicated at 37 to add strength to the cylinder.

To support the field coils, two discs 42 are provided which are apertured to pass over the cylinder 16 and fit against the yokes 38. These discs are formed with flanges 43 which overlap the yokes. Bolts 44 pass through the discs and between the yokes 38, as shown in Fig. 2, and carry nuts 45 which bear against the discs 42, clamping them against the y'okes. These bolts also extend through the brackets'12 to which they` are clamped by means offnuts 46. The transformers at each end of the pump are also supported on the bolts 44, as shown in Fig. 1, the bolts being provided with clamping nuts'47 which are screwed against clamping rings 48, which bear` against the yokes 41. By adjusting nuts 47 the transformers may be shifted to any desired position on the cylin-I der.

A'plate 49 is secured tothe yokes 38 by means of brackets 50, as shown in Fig. 2. Thisplate carries the binding postsl, 51 and 5l2 which form terminals of the field coils, as will be explained` presently. Similar plates 52 are secured to the top of the transformers and carry binding posts 53 which serve as terminals for the transformer windings.

For the cylinder 16 I prefer to use a structureV bui'lt up of layers of fabric suitably 110 Vcemented together to form an integral mass.

In order to increasethe magnetic permeability 01: in other Words to reduce magnetic reluctance to the minimum. at the points Where the teeth or legs 38 of the yokes 38 bear against the cylinder, soft iron wire or soft iron particles are embedded into the fabric. The wire may be coiled about the layers of the fabric as the cylinder is built up. Fig. 3a illustratesV a` portion of the cylinder in section, showing the wire 382 embedded in the fabric. Another method of increasing the magnet-ic permeability at these points is shown in Fig. 6", in which the wires 382 instead of being wound circumferentially around the cylinder are inserted radially inpenetrating the -inner i to the fabric without.

surface of the cylinder. l

In Fig. 6X, I show a modified form of armature on the plunger of the pump. Spacing rings 30 are used and these are formed with V-shaped annular ribsv 54 which engage recesses of similar shape in the ends of the armature segments 55, so that as the armature sections are pressed together by the nuts on the plunger shaft 27, the segments are clamped in position. The rings 30, therefore, serve both as spacing rings and retaining rings, so that rings 33 may be omitted.

lVhen my pump is designed for use on; a three-phase alternating circuit, the field coils 36 may be arranged in groups of s iX, each group consisting of three pairs of coils. For example, coils AB, CD andEF form the first group, coils AB, CD and EF the second group, etc. The three pairs of coils o f each group are connected in delta formation to bus bars 56, 57, and 58 of the three-phase power line. Thus, when the wave of maximum potential is sweeping through coils AB. it will he simultaneously sweeping through coils AB, A2132, AHB, in other words, there iwill be as many waves of electrical energy sinniltaneouslfy7 sweeping through the field coils as there 'are groups of coils. The direction of travel of'the waves may be reversed by interchanging connections of two of the bus bars. The bus bar 58 is normally connected with wire 58 of the tliree-phase power line, while switches 59 and 60 are interposed between bus bars 56 and 57 respectively and wires 56 and 57 respectively of the powe'i` line. With switches 59 and 60 occupying the position shown by full lines in Fig. 7, bus bar 56 is connected to line 56 and bus bar 57 to line 57 and a wave of potential then travels in the direction AB, CD, EF, AB, etc., but when the switch is thrown to 'the position shown by dotted lines bus'bai 56 is connected to line 57 and bus bar '57 to line 56 so that the wave travel non7 takes the direction AB, EF, CD, A B. The switches 59 and 60 are thrownby means of change in flux of the transformers at each end of the pump. The primary winding 39 of each 'transformer takes its power from the power supply lines and the secondary wind--` ings 40 of the transformers are respectively connected to relay magnets 6l and 61. These magnetsoperate to throw a switch 62 in one direction or the other depending upon which produces the greater magnetic pull. The current induced in the secondary' windings 40 is normally of low value, becausethere is no magnetic core for the transformer. However, when the plunger moves to the end of its stroke and an armature section passes betwen ends of yokes 41, the change of mag- 00 netic flux causesV the potential of induced 5 4direction and then in the other as the plungcurrent to be immediately increased to such an extent as to operate the relay magnet connected therewith and throw the switchl 62. Thus, the ,switch 62 is thrown iirst in one er reaches one end or the other of its stroke. The switch 62 serves to close a circuit from `power 'lines 56and 57 through one or the other of two switchl magnets 63 and 63', which, in turn will throw an armature 64 in one direction or another, depending upon which of the magnets 63 or 63 is energized. The armature 64 is carried by a shaft 65 on which the two switch arms 59 and 60 are secured thereby reversing the direction of tra-vel of the waves of current as described above.

Referring to Fig. 1, it will be observed that for every group of six iield coils, there are live armature sections -indicate-d by the letters a b e d e, a Z1 c cl e etc. When the maximum magnetic flux is generated by coils AB, AB. etc. the sections a b, a be', ctc. will be in position to receive the.. maximum pull and will center themselves with respect 5 to coils AB, AB etc., thereby bringing the next pair of sections c el' in position to receive the pull of coils CD, CD, etc., and as the wave of maxin'ium flux is; generated by coils EF, EF etc. armature sections ea', eeg, etc. will be drawn to centered position under coils EF, EF etc. Thus as the wave of maximum magnetic iiux traverses each group in one direction, the plunger advances in the opposite direction through a space equal to the width of one armature section-and this 'continues until the plunger reaches the end o f its strokewhen one of the armature sections enters the 'transformer yoke at that end of the cylinder reversing the direction of travel of the waves of current and thereby causing the plunger to move in the opposite direction.

will be no neutralization of magnetic iux in the legs 38 of the yoke between the coils;

for instance, when coil A is causing a Vflux three-phase alternating current to operate the pump, the connections shown in Fig. 8 may be employed. The coils are arranged in groups of six indicatedas before by the letters ABCDEF, ABCDEF, etc. All the coils are connected at one end to a power line 65 and at the other end of the coils A A etc. are connected to a bus bar 66A, the coils 9' clockwise direction, coil B will be. cansing a luX 1n counterfclockwise direction and B, B etcgto a bus bar 66B etc., there being siX bus bars, one for each coil of a group. Each bus bar is connected to a brush 67 which makes contact with a commutator 68. The commutator is driver through suitable gearing-by a motor 70. As shown in Fig. 8a, which is a plane projection of the commutator, the surface of the commutator carries an endless contact strip 71 which is electrically connected with power wire 72 through brush 73. Projecting from the contact strip 71 and spirally arranged about the surface of the commutator are inclined branch strips 74 wi th which brushes 67 make contact. Due to the pitch of the strips 74 the circuit through the coils of each group is successively closed. In other Words,.the pitch of the strips 74 is so chosen that justas the circuit through the bus bar 66A is being broken on one strip 74, the circuit through 4 bus-bar 66B; on the next strip 74 is being closed. Owing to the successive closing of the circuits through the coils' of each group, a wave of electric current passes through each group and this is followed byV a wave of magnetic flux which acts to attract the plunger in the opposite direction. The gearing 69 is so chosen that the commutator makes a half revolution for 'a' complete stroke of the plunger. Referring again to Fig. 8a it will be observed that the contact strips 74 are inclined to the right in one half of the commutator and to the left in the other half, so that as soon as the plunger has completed its stroke in one direction, the brushes 67 engage contact strips 74 which are inclined in the opposite direction therefore reversing the direction of tllavel of the magnetic waves of ener t f Vhile I have shown the eld coils arranged in groups of six and a space relation of to five between the field coils and the armature sections, I do not wish to limit myself to thisgrouping and relation. It will be obvious that instead of a delta connection described a star connection could be used and material departures may be made from said kgroupings and space relations -while keeping within the scope. of my invention Figs. 9 and 10 show two applications of my pump, the former for pumping liquids and the latter for pumping gases'. Owing to the cheapness vand simplicity of construction of my pump and also because the cylinder is completely sealed so that there; are no losses due to packings, it is economical to use a number of pumps and thereby step up the pressure by stages. In Fig. 9, I show a large electromagnetic pump 75 which draws a mixture of liquid and gas from an inlet supply pipe 76 and discharges it from opposite ends of the a separator 78.

Any gases that may be mixed with ,the

pump through pipe 77 into liquidare separated out in the chamber 78 and are drawn out from the top of the chamber through pipe 79 at increased pressure over 6. The liquid is then draw from the separator by pumps 80 which operate closed vessels each containing -a gas pocket which serves as a cushion to prevent hammering.

The equipment illustrated in Fig. 10 for compressing gas is similar to that shown in Fig. 9 except that the pumps 83, 84 and 85 are progressively smaller'from the low pressure to the high pressure stage. Between each pair of pumps there is an intercooler 86 and the high pressure pump discharges into an equalizer 87 whence the gas is led offpthrough pipe 88. submerged in a tank of oil or other cooling liquid indicated by broken lines 88 to carry off the heat of compression.

1. A reciprocating.electromagnetic pump comprising a coil for producing a 'magnetic field, an armature actuated by the field, a transformer comprising a primary and a secondary winding, the armature being adapted to enter the secondary winding at the end of its stroke, thereby increasing the electrical energy induced in the secondary winding, anda switch operated by said in- Each pump may becreased electrical energy to reverse the polarity of the field.

An electromagnetic pump comprisinga cylinder, a plunger adapted to reciprocate therein, field coils adapted to be connected to a source of current and serving to actuate the plunger, a transformer at one end of the cylinder, and a switch for reversing' the polarity of the field coils, said switch tbeing operated by current variations resulting from variations in the magnetic circuit of the transformer produced by the plunger.

3. An electromagnetic pump comprising a cylinder, a plunger adapted to reciprocate therein, lfield coils adapted to be connected to a source of current and serving to actuate the plunger, a transformer at one end of they 4. An electromagnetic pump comprising a cylinder, a plunger adapt-ed to reciprocate therein, fie-ld coils adapted to be connected to'a source of current and serving to actuat. the plunger, a switch for reversing the vpolarity ofthe current, and means actuated netically actuated by the plunger for throwing said switch.

6. A solenoid comprising a plurality of field coils, laminated yokes of high magnetic permeability overlying the coils and formed with legs disposed between the coils, a plunger adapted to operate within the coils, and an armature carried by the plunger comprisinga plurality of annular sections, the width of the sections from center to center being greater than the space from center to center of said legs.

7. In a solenoid comprising a field coil, a cylinder of non-magnetic material and a plunger actuated by magnetic flux generated by the field coil, the combination of a yoke forming a path for the flux outside the cylinder, and elements of high magnetic permeability embedded in the cylinder to complete said path through tlie cylinder to and from the plunger. v

8. A solenoid comprising a cylinder of non-magnetic material, a field coil mounted thereon and adapted to generate magnetic flux, a lplunger in the cylinder, operated by said flux, a plurality of laminated soft iron yokes spanning the coil and extending radially inward to enter annular grooves formed in the cylinder, and soft iron wire embedded in the cylinder wall at the bottom of said grooves.

9. A plunger for a solenoid comprising an arbor, a series of sector shaped armature segments mounted thereon, means for retaining the segments, and means for ,wedging the segments between said retaining means and the arbor. y

10. A- plunger for a solenoid comprising an arbor, sectpr shaped Varmature segments mounted thereon, wedged shaped keys insorted between certain vof the segments, means for retaining the segments, and means for wedging the segments between said retaining means and said arbor.

11. A plunger for a'solenoid comprising a series of armature sections, each section comprising a series of sector shaped ,segments, non-magnetic means for retaining the segments in sition, and non-magnetic means for spacing the Vsections one from the other.

12. A reciprocating electromagnetic motor comprising a coil for producing a magi by increasing netic field, an armature actuated by the field, a reversing switch for controlling the field, and a switch-operating coil, said arinatuie being adapted to enter said switch-operating coilnear the end of its stroke and cause current variations therein for operating said switch.

13. A reciprocating electromagnetic inotor comprising a coil forV producing a mag# netic field, an armature actuated by the field, a reversing switch for controlling the field, a switch-operating coil, said armature being adapted to enter said switch-operating coil near the end of its stroke and cause current .variations therein for operating said switch, and means for adjusting said switch-operating coil With respect to the stroke of sai armature. l

14. A reciprocating electro-magnetic motor comprising arcoil for producing a mag-.- netic field, an armature actuated by the field, a transformer, the armature being adapted to enter the transformer .to effect an increase of current induced by the transformer, a reversing switch controlled by such induced current, and means for adjusting the transformer axially with respect to said field.

15. A reciprocating electro-magnetic motor comprising a coil for producing a magnetic field, an armature actuated by the field, a transformer, the armature being adapted to enter the transformer to effect an increase of current induced by the transformer, a reversing switch controlled by s uch induced current, and means for adjusting the position of the transformer with respect to the stroke of said armature. l

16. 4A reciprocating electro-magnetic motor comprising a coil for producing a inagnetic field, an armature actuated by the field,

a transformer having a primary and a secondary winding and having also a yoke forming an incomplete para-magnetic circuit about the primary and secondary windings, the armature being adapted to enter the secondary coil near theend of its stroke.

to complete said para-magnetic circuit, therethe electrical energy induced in the secondary winding, and a reversing switch operable by said 4increased electrical energy.

17. A reciprocating electro-'magnetic motor comprising a coilfor producing a niagnetic field, an armature actuated by the field, a transformer having a `primary and a secondary winding and para-magnetic circuit, the armature being adapted to' complete said circuit near the end of its stroke, thereby increasing elec` tri'cal energy induced in' the secondarywindf ing, and a reversing switch operable by said increased electrical energy.

. LOUIS H.1RDLLER.

a normally incomplete' 

